Our firm recently participated in an exercise where we recalled the best team we ever worked on (past or present), and answered one question, “What were the characteristics of that team?” We all took five minutes to come up with our individual lists of qualities that made up that team, and then we went around the room compiling the answers and ranking them by popularity.

We were in such alignment on our ideas of what makes up a great team, that we decided to make our 2020
Game Plan about being committed to building teams we are proud to be a part of. Below are the characteristics we decided to rally around, as well as our 2020 Game Plan graphic:

• Mutual Respect and Trust: each person being treated with respect and establishing a solid relationship between team members that fosters trust and safety.

• Passion and Commitment: each person loving what they do and being committed to the vision of the organization and to each other.

• Leveraging Strengths: identifying and understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and being able to rely on team members to complement each other where needed to make an even stronger team.

• Good Communication: clear goals and expectations established, and an open-door policy for ideas as well as for questions and concerns.